He was born in Aracataca, Colombia, on March 6, 1927; died in Mexico City, April 17, 2014. He established residence in Mexico permanently since 1975. Narrator, journalist and screenwriter. He studied Law at the University of Bogotá. He was a journalist for the newspapers El Espectador, El Nacional, El Universal (column "Punto y aparte") and El Heraldo (column "La Jirafa"), in Colombia; correspondent in Geneva for El Espectador and, in Colombia, for Prensa Latina. Publicist; cultural promoter; director of the magazines Sucesos para Todos and La Familia; founder of the group of writers Grupo de Barranquilla, and of the magazine, in collaboration with Felipe López Caballero, Alternativa, in Colombia; director of the Film School of San Antonio de los Baños, in Cuba. Author of the film scripts: En este pueblo no hay ladrones (1964), El gallo de oro (adaptation, together with Carlos Fuentes and Roberto Gavaldón, of the story of Juan Rulfo, merecedora de una Diosa de Plata; 1964), Lola de mi vida (in collaboration with Juan de la Cabada; 1964), Tiempo de morir (1966), Juego peligroso (1966), Primer cuento (1967), Presagio (together with Luis Alcoriza, winner of two Arieles; 1974), La viuda de Montiel (1978), María de mi corazón (1979) and El año de la peste (together with Felipe Cazals and Juan Arturo Brennan, deserving of a Silver Goddess and an Ariel; 1979). Collaborator of Cromos, El Heraldo, El espectador (Colombia), El Universal, México en la Cultura, Momento, Proceso and Revista Mexicana de Literatura, among others. Esso Prize 1961 for La mala hora. Rómulo Gallegos Award 1972 for The incredible and sad story of the candid Eréndira and her heartless grandmother. World Journalism Award of the International Organization of Journalists 1977. Legion of Honor, in the degree of Grand Commander, by the Government of France, 1981. Nobel Prize in Literature 1982. Order of the Aztec Eagle 1982. Doctor honoris causa by Columbia University, USA. His work has been translated into almost every language.